The discussions over pairing an increase in the debt limit with austerity budgeting took a turn into the stratosphere this morning, with a series of articles detailing President Obama’s offer, to be presented to Congressional leaders today, of a broader deficit reduction plan than previously discussed, with major cuts to all areas of government and a repeal of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 2%. This is the grand bargain, the “something big” deal that the President has clearly favored since perhaps before he entered office, when he set up a fiscal responsibility summit and invited Pete Peterson to keynote it.

Let’s begin with what we know about this latest proposal. Here’s Lori Montgomery, who headlines her story “In debt talks, Obama offers Social Security cuts”:

At a meeting with top House and Senate leaders set for Thursday morning, Obama plans to argue that a rare consensus has emerged about the size and scope of the nation’s budget problems and that policymakers should seize the moment to take dramatic action.

As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal. The move marks a major shift for the White House and could present a direct challenge to Democratic lawmakers who have vowed to protect health and retirement benefits from the assault on government spending.

Rather than roughly $2 trillion in savings, the White House is now seeking a plan that would slash more than $4 trillion from annual budget deficits over the next decade, stabilize borrowing, and defuse the biggest budgetary time bombs that are set to explode as the cost of health care rises and the nation’s population ages.

How is this different from what we have known to be in the discussions for the past three weeks? I’m not seeing it. Yes, $2 trillion was the target number for agreements on cuts, but there was also this “trigger” formulation that would have forced automatic reductions if the deficit were above a certain level. In other words, that would have enforced a deficit reduction at a level at or near $4 trillion over 10 years. So the only change there is that the elements of the deal will be labeled immediately.

We already knew that Medicare was in the deal, and the same with Medicaid and Social Security. In fact, the only reason Social Security factors in at all is because the method used to affect the cost of living adjustment – known as “chained CPI” – would also impact other mandatory programs with COLA changes and tax brackets, saving government funding that way. If it was just a Social Security change, it would score as $0.00 toward the deficit. It’s a stealth tax increase more than anything.

The president’s renewed efforts follow what knowledgeable officials said was an overture from Mr. Boehner, who met secretly with Mr. Obama last weekend, to consider as much as $1 trillion in unspecified new revenues as part of an overhaul of tax laws in exchange for an agreement that made substantial spending cuts, including in such social programs as Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security — programs that had been off the table.

The intensifying negotiations between the president and the speaker have Congressional Democrats growing anxious, worried they will be asked to accept a deal that is too heavily tilted toward Republican efforts and produces too little new revenue relative to the magnitude of the cuts.

Actually, if we’re talking about $1 trillion in revenue now as part of a $4 trillion deal, that’s actually more balanced than it was before, with $300-$400 billion as part of a $2.4 trillion deal. This spending/revenue ratio of 3:1 is still worse than any deficit reduction plan of the past 30 years, including ones presided over by Ronald Reagan. But it’s very much in line with the numbers from Obama’s April fiscal policy speech.

This would also accomplish a clear goal for Obama – cleaving off the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy from the rest of the Bush tax cuts. He’s wanted to do this for some time. He wanted to do it last December, and when he didn’t have the option, he extended them all. He said yesterday in his Twitter townhall that he wanted to extend the Bush tax cuts for everyone’s first $250,000 of income. That’s what he wants to do. It’s a clear policy goal. He’s using the debt limit negotiations to try and get it.

And he’s dangling $3 trillion in spending cuts in order to secure it. The Wall Street Journal says means testing of Medicare is on the table, as well as folding in a broad overhaul of corporate taxes, closing loopholes and lowering rates. This is several years’ worth of legislating in one deal.

To believe this deal has a chance of happening, you have to believe that Republicans will agree to significantly increase taxes – $1 trillion over 10 years is no slouch – particularly on the rich. Eric Cantor said yesterday that he would agree to certain closures of tax loopholes, but only if the total tax package were deficit neutral. While all the stories labor to discuss this secret meeting between Obama and Boehner, apparently to discuss this deal, they really only say that Boehner offered a range of options and committed to none. Jon Kyl said on the Senate floor last night that Republicans have agreed to $150-$200 billion in increased revenues, but only through increased user fees and government sales. And Mitch McConnell remains completely adamant that there’s no revenues on the table at all. There’s nothing to suggest that, out of nowhere, any Republican would agree to $1 trillion in tax hikes, including increases on tax rates for the wealthy.

So this is one of two things. Either A) it’s a coordinated PR campaign to show the country that only the President is serious about a deal, leading to some kind of positioning when the whole thing falls apart, or B) it’s a calculated bluff to make everyone thing that there’s been some kind of agreement, when the details are far less clear.

But regardless of this, I think you have to agree with Kevin Drum, that this deal, or at least what we can see of it, represents a virtual wish list for the President, that he actually views the long-term deficit as a problem, that he wants to rectify it through some shared sacrifice, but tilted toward the spending side, and that he’s using the debt limit to leverage a deal as much as the Republicans are.

Needless to say, I think he’s wrong. I think he’s wrong that austerity will have anything but a negative near-run impact on the economy. I think he’s wrong about the political implications, because taking the most potent issue off the table for Congressional Democrats – Medicare – will leave them with literally nothing to run on. I think he’s wrong about the importance of a deficit reduction deal to the political picture and winning over independents – tangible economic realities will trump the “deficit,” which is frequently in polling a stand-in for the “economy.” I think he’s wrong to assume that poor people and old people can shoulder the burden of more cuts to the safety net that sustains them. They could maybe pay a couple hundred bucks a year extra in taxes, but not the kind of medical premiums required if their health insurance goes away, or their food stamps, or their retirement security, or whatever other supports. I think this is a really bad set of choices that will hurt people for decades. I think the entire way the President talks about the economy is ahistorical and deeply damaging to the liberal project generally.

But I see nothing in the evidence to suggest that Republicans will accept this deal any more than they accepted the other ones.

“But I see nothing in the evidence to suggest that Republicans will accept this deal any more than they accepted the other ones.”

I really really hope you are right. If anyone had told me three years ago, that I would now be cheering on Republican intransigence, I would have told them they were mad. Well, here I am, “Go Tea-GOP!!! Just say no!!!”. God knows Obama won’t help. And after years of doing the Republicans bidding, congressional Dems aren’t likely to rise to the occasion either.

Be prepared for upward revisions in official deficit projections in the years ahead—even if a deal is struck. There are at least three major reasons for concern.

First, a normalization of interest rates would upend any budgetary deal if and when one should occur. At present, the average cost of Treasury borrowing is 2.5%. The average over the last two decades was 5.7%. Should we ramp up to the higher number, annual interest expenses would be roughly $420 billion higher in 2014 and $700 billion higher in 2020.

The 10-year rise in interest expense would be $4.9 trillion higher under “normalized” rates than under the current cost of borrowing. Compare that to the $2 trillion estimate of what the current talks about long-term deficit reduction may produce, and it becomes obvious that the gains from the current deficit-reduction efforts could be wiped out by normalization in the bond market.

In the year of 2016, the candidates and the eventual two nominees of the major political parties, will be rejecting whatever Obama and Boehner agree on during the next few days.

Therefore, a future president is not going to “restrict” himself or herself on work accomplished by prior administrations and Congress. And it’s for this reason that America turned its back on Clinton’s “blueprint” that also included sizable surpluses.

In closing, what Obama’s attempting to give the Democrats, or for his self-perceived Legacy, is that the Democrats will be precluded from writing a maore accurate history that is consistent with Democrats not being Democrats, and thusly, the legacy for the Era of Squandered Opportunities, cannot gain any political traction among the general public. If so, the Democratic Coaltion will fall apart, since Organized Labor genuflected while visiting the White House and subsequently “rejected” their Card Check and have remained silent on continuing Republican enema being delivered to Democrats via Voter I.D. Laws.

So, who’s lying now or who lied earlier? Is this supposed to mollify us? Call your congresscritters and the WH!!

Obama Aide On Social Security Cut Story: It ‘Overshoots The Runway’

‘”The story overshoots the runway,” said a senior administration official. “The President said in the State of the Union that he wanted a bipartisan process to strengthen Social Security in a balanced way that preserves the promise of the program and doesn’t slash benefits.”

‘”While it is definitely not a driver of the deficit,” the official added, “it does need to be strengthened.”‘

Thank you for ending on this note. To me, this is one of the most dangerous aspects of the Obama presidency. He legitimizes right wing ideas and spit-shines them into what constitutes being “practical.”

What a legacy, after all that hope and change! And if he enables the Repugs to cripple our social programs, next year’s survey will probably shift more toward the negative.

Americans’ outlook on personal finances unchanged under Obama

“The survey found that 28 percent of American adults think their family finances will get better in the next year, 20 percent think they’ll get worse and 52 percent think they’ll stay the same.

“That’s almost identical to what the poll found in April 2009, near the beginning of the Obama administration. Then, 28 percent thought their finances would get better, 22 percent thought they’d get worse and 50 percent thought they’d stay the same.”

Furthermore…………….If you think the ideologs will compromise….look at California.
Addendum. This “take no prisoner” ,
“my road or no road” , “Politics IS NOT the art of compromise” has a father. It reared it’s brainless head at the same time the “born again”, “evangelicals” came to influence the GOP. It is the mindless bastard child of an ideological mental shutdown.

Obama and Nancy could have cut the Bush tax cuts to the most wealthy right away bF health care and bf a change in congress. So, we know they had NO intention of doing it. Now, in order to get ANY tax or revenue help for our mismanaged nation, Obama will give away SS and Medi. GET RID OF OBAMA AND GET OUT OF THE NO-REASON, BLOOD-SUCKING, DEPLETING WARS.

So, what was it that Raul Grijalva said about Democrats *never* letting Social Security cuts happen? Yeah…exactly why *I will never believe him or the Congressional Progressive Caucus again*. Of course, I never believed him when he said it a few months ago, but some around here did.

Do think this most recent backstabbing by the potus will make it clear to the obamabots that Obama needs to be primary’d starting right now? I don’t. How they can continue to apologize for this status quo, rape and pillage for the oligarch’s war mongering president is beyond me. I hate the Democrats for their gullibility… naivety indeed stupidity. Who so ever wins the nomination on the red side of ticket is a shoe-in and the now decade+ long nightmare is nowhere near the end.

Taking the most potent issue off the table for Congressional Democrats – Medicare – will leave them with literally nothing to run on. That’s the whole game in a nushell. Republicans are only thinking about what the political angles are. Their goal isn’t reducing the deficit – it’s destroying the Democratic Party. Put their actions in this context and everything about the Republican Party that doesn’t make any sense suddenly makes perfect sense.

You took the words right out of my typing fingers… Obama is NOT Bush lite… Obama is Bush squared/heavy/doubled/trebled…

IMO, Obama far surpassed Bush some time ago in terms of his perfidy and chicanery… much much worse, and more’s the pity that trad-Dem voters are asleep at the wheel & continuing to give this lying crook a big fat pass based on the braindead fact that Obama parades the term “Democratic” next to his name. No doubt he laughs his butt off at how easily misled & fooled the trad-Dem “constituents” are.

Yup, they’ll never settle for anything less than complete destruction of the American economy. the plan is that when China throws out American polluters, they can all come back over here to a nice, slave labor force.

If Social Security is self-funding, why is it consistently tied into deficit talks? Any perceived issues with Social Security have absolutely nothing to do with the deficit or any budget issues (except for the part about stealing borrowing money from the trust fund for other things).

Obama is either a fool for believing Social Security is a deficit driver or a cynical bastard who’s willing to negotiate away Social Security to accomplish his political goals.

All the Bush ‘emergency war funding’ will cost many, many Americans at home (unless we have ex presidential, congressional and senatorial health care for life coverage) a lower life expectancy. Was this the objective? Dirty. Dirty. Dirty.

Have to give both the president and congress some credit for putting something together. It doesn’t sound like it cuts enough but it is an important first step in putting the country back on the path to prosperity.

That, in a nutshell, is the Democrats’ 2012 campaign message. “We’re weak and untrustworthy, but the Republicans are worse.” Yeah, that’ll rally the people who voted for Obama in 2008 and have walked away in disgust.

Obama is complete shit. If they would have fixed (reformed) healthcare and ended the tax cuts for the top 1%, we would be running budget surpluses. Instead the giveways (welfare) to the kleptocrats continues. How many times can they cut Medicare before seniors have no access to healthcare?

Please, someone send Obama a mask so he can have another face because his ego may be looking for a way to save face to get out of Afghan and Iraq. Ego or bank accounts or future pay-back appointments/lofty positions continue to kill and deplete Americans and America. America needs a mature and empathetic man or woman in the WH at this time. There is something missing in Obama. Something is not developed right.

I really, REALLY don’t want to live in a theocracy…REALLY! they’ll come for me first in their with-hunts.How Hitler Became a Dictator
I stroppily suspect that Obama’s presidency was calculated to dump the Dem brand forever.
These people are very knowledgeable about how to turn the people’s thinking.
I realize it’s fashionable on the Lfet to be cynical, but I think we shoudl be a bit car3eful in throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Do you really want to see another republican puppet in there, with Fox University complete with Professor Glenn Beck?
I think we should be VERY careful when our emotions run high.
I will be directly affected by all this as I am disabled with a VERY serious condition and I’M not even sure what to do.
If you’ve got an answer, by all means, let’s hear it.
Obama is just the latest puppet IMO.

My supremely naive and ridiculous dream is that Obama will call a presser and say that the Tea-O-P can go to hell and that he wants each and every one of us out on the street protesting for a new New Deal. Got a Revolution, Got to Revolution!

Neither Medicare nor Social Security is an “entitlement” program. Neither is a public charity. They are both programs fully funded by the American people with their full consent(unless of course, their bank accounts end in “illion”). One does not become “entitled” to enjoy something one has had the foresight to provide for oneself.

Second. Obama’s denial:

“The story overshoots the runway,” said a senior administration official. “The President said in the State of the Union that he wanted a bipartisan process to strengthen Social Security in a balanced way that preserves the promise of the program and doesn’t slash benefits.”

get that guys? A “bipartisan process” (Dems cave to Republicans) to “strengthen Social Security in a balanced way” bla bla bla (a way for the Obama administration and Dems to cave gracefully and deprive the program of more funds over time so no one will remember it was done [remember there is a 2% tax holiday in Obama's tax cuts for the rich (TCFTR) "compromise" already])

Do not believe a word. Social Security and Medicare will be gone by 2015. The USA will have a series of one term presidents until 2020 when the country will either (a) disband as a nation; (b) experience mass emigration of skilled and educated people to other lands, leaving the US populated by the obscenely wealthy and their low or no paid service labor force; or (c) be reclaimed politically through revolution.

I have omitted as a possibility, a political solution to this crisis we now face — specifically, the USA is on the brink of becoming a Dickensian dystopia — because the political process is bought and fully paid for, owned, controlled and rigged by the very people who have decided that of 370 million Americans, 360 million of us DO NOT COUNT.

Personally, I am in the process of preparing to emigrate to a kinder, gentler place where people are valued and companies and corporate entities are treated like inanimate, inhuman organizations.

So inspiring, vote for us, we aren’t quite as bad. But actually Obama is worse because he’s to the right of Cheney now, worse than most Republicans. So what might the new slogan be I wonder? Vote for me, I’m what? A sold out asshole? No that won’t work..I think the only people who will vote for Obama are Wall Street bankers, he’s their guy.

What we need is an alternative to Obama in 2012, not vote for him again so he can continue moving further to the right. A moderate Republican would be more liberal than Obama. I wish Hillary would run against Obama again. I think she’d get it this time.

Do any of you know what is required to get a green card for Canada or to become a Canadian citizen? Its over her were toast. Its becoming more obvious everyday that Barry is the GOP’s “Manchurian Candidate.”

Let alone Medicaid. These days, you take your life in your hands to go to the doctor.
I’ve never been hurt so consistently by careless, rushed doctors as I have in the last three or so years. In fact, I’m in a major flare-up from something my idiot primary did to me a couple weeks ago. She’s nice, but I’m still appalled.
My neurologist is getting hincky.
I’ve watched Medicaid go from something very good in the early 90′s to being taken over by the HMOs and health insurance corpse and most of the $$$ going to them
And they treat me like I’m coming in with a tin cup full of pencils “alms for the poor?” then they tell me to my face that people like me are taking down society.
It’s really NOT a good time.
Bush already cut it to the bone by allowing the managers to take more and more and I can tell you, THAT’S not going to change, so where’s is the savings?
I guess people will be dying in ditches here pretty soon.

I don’t expect pity, which is short supply no matter what your politics, it seem to me, but I have quite a bit of experience in this area, maybe someone can benefit from it.
Be careful of doctors!

Good for you marblex! I wish you all the best in your new country. You are doing the right thing, but you know that. We are planning the same thing. I’m encouraging everybody I know to leave this godforsaken place. We are examining other countries to find the best fit. There are many better choices than to remain in the USA. Some places are very easy to move to and establish at least permanent residency. Too bad so many Americans are not well travelled or they would know that. There are jobs out there, prosperous societies that are both far more economically successful than the USA, that share the national wealth more equitably among their population and that have excellent, inexpensive medical care, many things that enhance the quality of life. Primarily what we like about these other places is a lack of savagery in the overall culture, because it’s not dominated by rapine robber barons and sociopaths. People in these places have not been stupid enough to allow fascists to take over their country.

But you KNOW that’s not going to happen. why even bring it up? It’s a waste of time.
More activism and making oneself a target, if necessary is the only thing that will work now.

did you hear about the NEW TSA atrocity to be visited upon US? Now people with recent surgery will be given more attention by the TSA thugs because “al Queada” is supposedly inserting bombs into surgical areas. they call them “Belly bombs”.So, now they can harass people who already are stressed out

What amazes me is that Obama does not at all seem to realize what SS means to the middle class. For him to even allow his spokesperson to mention the idea is bad enough. I have decided that Obama really just is not that smart. He is in a cannot lose position, again, and here he is caving in to the republicans, yet again. All the while he is thinking we’ll judge him on his wisdom and pragmatism and appreciate his greatness. He is one dumb SOB if he does not think that the republicans will take this victory, and it will be their biggest yet, and use it again and again to get whatever they want. We can look forward to many more hostage crises like this. I had a hard time figuring this boy out but now I have him nailed – he is just weak. Simple as that – he’s just a very weak person and he cannot handle the stress so he cuts deals to rid himself of the burden quickly. He truly relates to powerful elites and he wants to be accepted by them. The “professional left” can just go to hell.

The country is angry, the Tea Baggers are in disarray, and the already-elected Rs are squirming, and the Dems are hopeless losers. However, the Republican field is so weak and not even liked by their own people that Obama has a good chance of winning. I won’t vote for him but I know that chaos will reign if an R gets elected. Get ready.

And absolutely right about your analysis. What’s happening is the inevitable culmination of unregulated capitalism, enclosure. Enclosure on a massive scale jump started capitalist success in Britain in the early years, forcing most people off their land into impoverishment on a hideous scale in the cities or forcing them to immigrate here. This is the reason most of us are here. Now we have a new enclosure taking place, where our government allied with big corporations and banks are despoiling us of our property, livelihoods, savings, entitlements and rights. But where to go now? Plenty of places actually if you can afford to relocate. You know what I think will happen, Canada is going to have to build a wall to keep desperate Americans out as they become more like Mexicans. Or maybe Americans will flee to Mexico. It’s already the case that in major cities they have lost the middle class. San Francisco is lamenting that now and New York state is worried that they will soon have no tax base, since the middle class pays for everything. But they’ve fled and are continuing to flee the fleecing. Cities now have the rich and the poor. Gosh, who will pay taxes? No one, which is why they are losing police, firemen, teachers and as the witch hunt against public employees proceeds, water plant workers, sewage plant workers, etc. Wait until the truly brown water starts flowing, the sewage spills out into the front yards of beachfront properties, your house burns to the ground and there are no teachers left and kids just run wild, which they are doing in many cities now, mugging the rich and beating them up. This will only get worse.

Dual citizenship has it’s privileges. European countries saw fascism up close and personal. The U.S. is a prime breeding ground for the new fascism. A distracted, disinterested, and easily manipulated public and a plutocracy whose greed and lust for power knows no limits.

It’s tricky, but they’re probably one of the easiest and straight forward developed nations to immigrate into, hence the high number of immigrants there from many different countries and backgrounds. Having a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree, fluency in French, needed skills, etc. all contribute to passing their point system. I barely pass the one they offer online. That process can take up to a few years to finish though. I think through that method you do not need to have a job with a Canadian company and I imagine it will be easier to find one after that than if you tried to get a work visa.

The other method is through NAFTA. Basically that you have skills they need and you can get a work visa if a company will hire you. I think this method is difficult unless you’re in one of those high demand fields.

I’m thinking about it again myself. Canada is less exciting and populated than the US, but it’s starting to become a matter of survival instincts. If you’re not wealthy in the US with the right skills, your future is uncertain and looking increasingly bleak. Canada has better education, less income equality, less crime, etc., otoh they’re incredibly Americanized (less culture shock though) and each major city has weather issues, weather freezing, harsh winters or extremely rainy for 6 months.

I am an old retired geezer – a lifelong Dem. I never thought I’d see the day a Democratic President would be unwilling to defend Social Security. Obama’s understanding of the Rethug meme that SS is an entitlement program puts him in league with his predecessor. SS is owned by the workers who have paid into it. The annual payouts of SS benefits are factored separately from the annual federal budget and have contributed not a dime to our deficit problem. My anger with Obama is causing my blood pressure to rise and I know it’s too late to support someone who could challenge Obama in next year’s primaries.

To me, this is one of the most dangerous aspects of the Obama presidency. He legitimizes right wing ideas and spit-shines them into what constitutes being “practical.”

Not only that, but the Repugs have been far better at “playing” the democrats (current and prior administrations) with this game. The Repugs “propose” more than they actually “want” and get the Democrats to compromise to what they really want.

However it is backfiring on them, and the whole country, as both parties have moved much farther right than either could have imagined a couple or few decades ago.

These days Nixon would positively be a liberal, Reagan would not survive a primary and anyone like Humphrey would probably be arrested.

and the willingness of union officials to go along to get along. After purging the unions of the socialists and the communists the unions became just another instrument to preserve and protect a corrupt status quo.

A distracted, disinterested, and easily manipulated public and a plutocracy whose greed and lust for power knows no limits.

How would (does) the plutocracy control the masses?
Keep them uneducated, unhealthy and afraid.

This explains the attacks on education and health care. Fear is accomplished by ruining the economy (except for the top 2% – who are doing great), so people are afraid of losing their jobs, homes and everything.

Yes now we can look forward to TSA body cavity searches at random. It’s a lie of course, invented to justify the aggressive pat down policy. Granny might have a bomb up her ass, that’s the new theory. What amazes me is that Americans continue to put up with this fascist behavior. No I guess it doesn’t if I’m honest, it’s just depressing. I guess like everything else they will push their atrocities too far and hopefully people will wake up and react. Better to just leave this benighted country and never come back. That is the biggest favor the middle class could do for themselves, leave, find a good job elsewhere and enjoy and deprive this fucked up country of tax revenue. Then the rich would be left alone with a Third World infrastructure, no power, no clean water, no safe sewage disposal, no police, no firemen and no teachers. Why it would be like the Dark Ages! They could build castles and moats and die of the plague..what a nice thought.

This is exactly right. SF was once mecca for artists and counter-culture types among others, but after the dot-com boom in the 90′s and the increasing income inequality, it became too expensive. With its small size, there is little space left. You have to participate in gentrification of the remaining affordable areas that the low income people live in. Now the alternative types are heading to Oakland, but the experience is not the same. It’s another Bay City more than a nearby SF suburb. The same happened to NYC, except instead of overpaid dot com nerds squeezing people out, it was grossly overpaid financial sector henchmen as well as the declining crime rates that attracted existing wealthy people to buy/rent more property. So, people started moving to Brooklyn, but now more and more of it is becoming too expensive. However, at least NYC’s transit system runs through it so it still feels part of NYC, unlike Oakland. In both NYC and SF you have extreme inequality, extremely rich or extremely poor with little room for middle class.

This Duck-billed platypus President and his spiny ant eater Vice-president have really laid a couple of rotten eggs for their base this time. These cross dressing democrats are following these two cowards down the yellow brick road of bad policies and ideas. If these two clowns accidentally click their heels and woke up in GIT-MO, a desert island in the South Pacific, or in a room “where they come and go and talk about Michael Angelo”. Anywhere that doesn’t require any critical thinking or their part. We can offer John Boehner a starting role as a rockettes dancer or Linus Blanket for his vote.We can get The Great liar from Kentucky Mit McConnell vote by giving him a staring role as antebellum plantation owner in a movie.

Consider Australia or New Zealand. Australia is looking for people with certain skills in industries they want to develop. It’s a pretty place with good government, a sane economy, a very prosperous economy and nice weather.
English speaking. Although it’s a stretch to get used to driving on the ‘wrong’ side. A small price to pay for a better life for you and your children. You can watch this disaster unfold from afar.

Try Australia or New Zealand. Failing that because these countries are not easy to get into, think about Costa Rica or Panama or some Caribbean countries who make it very easy to get in. It’s easy to start your own business in places like Costa Rica, there are plenty of American expats there already. I know a lot of people who are moving to Thailand and Indonesia also. Their economies are better than ours and their culture is less savage. One day the rich are going to wake up and find that their middle class cash cows are gone. There are plenty of books on amazon.com with helpful advice.

I listen to Jessie Jackson’s call in radio program “Keep Hope Alive” and a majority of callers and almost all African American intellectuals are on the verge of abandoning Obama. This sellout will likely finish it for him in the African American community.

and a “pop culture” that is infantile and insipid. What do you see at the check out line at your local Piggly Wiggly? Not news magazines or newspapers but gossip rags, beauty mags, and self-help for the terminally bewildered.

Would love to. I’ve met many friendly Australians, they have beautiful beaches and nice weather, but it’s in the middle of nowhere. I believe it takes nearly 16-24 hours and over $2000 (more for the shorter flights) to fly from there to the eastern US. Do you live there?

One day the rich are going to wake up and find that their middle class cash cows are gone.

I used to live downundah and loved it there. The culture ends up being very different from the USA, but the more-or-less similar language makes it easier to fit in. I’m not sure how easy it is emigrate to Aus or NZ these days, but younger folks might want to give it a shot. I loved living in Sydney, which remains to me the best address on the planet.

Ya know the rightwingers all LOVE to victimize themselves endlessly about the 47% who don’t pay federal taxes. The whiiiining that they indulge themselves in is pathetic, esp bc they completely ignore all the other regressive taxes that the poor HAVE to pay and which is a heavier burden for them to pay.

However, what IS happening – which idiotic conservatives simply don’t “get” – is that soon the nation will be divided into a very small number who pay fed taxes (at way too low “progressive” rates) and a huge & growing number who pay no fed taxes at all bc they are too poor & don’t make enough money. Of course, the latter will still be “dinged” for loads of other regressive taxes.

So, yeah, the country will descend to third world status. I’ve lived in a number of third world countries, including India & Thailand. Those countries have changed a lot since I lived there, but I can tell you that being rich in those countries isn’t some sort of “dream.”

To maintain themselves, the wealthy have live in heavily fortified (not just some stupid gate) communities with a LOT of private security. And even with all of their private body guards and such, many of these super wealthy are targets for assassination from various underground groups.

It will take a while for things to descend to this level in the USA, so the present generation of effed up greedheads may not live to experience such things, but sooner or later, the piper will come for his dues to be paid. The mega-wealthy can run, but they cannot hide. Ultimately, it’s not going to play out all that well for them, either.

Would be nice if we just returned to a pre-2001 world. Get rid of all that defense build up, the intelligence infrastructure, all that nonsense which has bled us dry. Get rid of the Bush tax cuts and I think all would be well with the world.

Unfortunately, God forbid anyone open themselves up to attacks that they aren’t tough on terrorism, etc.

This crank only turns one way and unfortunately, I fear there is no way to ratchet it back.